Spring Town Meeting Warrant Preview 2026

Hi, I'm Jessica D'Amore, the communications manager with the town of Dartmouth, here to review the 2026 spring town meeting articles. I'll be meeting with various town officials to review the 28 articles and three special town meeting articles. Town meeting is on June 2nd at 9:00 a.m. at the Dartmouth High School auditorium, and check-in will be at 8:00 a.m., so make sure you're there early. My first guest

today is Buddy Baker Smith, the chairman of the Community Preservation Committee, and he's going to discuss the seven articles on the town meeting warrant.

Great to have you here today. Well, thank you. Nice to be here. We're going to start with article one, the Community Preservation Committee administrative budget. We refer to that as like a housekeeping article. The Community Preservation Committee, by statute, is allowed to set aside up to 5% of the expected revenue for administrative purposes. Sort of plan or review projects.

Um those kinds of expenses.

We've kept our budget the same for years at $35,000.

We represent actually about 3.1% of our expected revenue for fiscal '27.

We hardly ever spend it all.

Whatever we don't spend just rolls back into our general reserve for projects in the future. Then we'll move on to article two, Community Preservation Committee fiscal year 2027 Community Housing Reserve. Statute requires that we set aside at least 10% of expected revenue for each of the three general purposes, open space reserve preservation, historic preservation, community housing.

Um either 10% for put into a reserve or at least 10% committed to a project. Given the warrant articles that we have will more than cover the 10% with historic preservation and open space. But, we do not have any articles regarding housing. So, we're setting aside this 10% which we projected to be about 112,000.

And article three, community preservation committee D C T V renovations for phase three. Ah, well, that's very space we're talking about the town hall annex. I think it's kind of how people refer to this building.

This was originally built 1894. It's been renovated and altered over the years and have served many different purposes for the town. It's in need of re-shingling and some painting and that kind of work. And so, the CPA funds would be used for the construction and restoration works. This being a historic building the shingles, the trim work, all of that's going to be done in accordance with Department of Interior

standards for historic buildings. So, we look forward to seeing that work get done. Over the years, the town has been maintaining the property, but there are these kinds of big capital expenditures that really require some additional kind of investment and that's what this article would do. The town is looking to appropriate 461,394 dollars for this project. Moving on to article four,

and that's the DeWolfe Field project.

DeWolfe Field is 2 and 1/2 acres located 4 Tannery Lane. If you will go down Russell Mills Road just as you pass DeWolfe's, you'll see it on the left. It abuts Russell Mills and then the other side of the property is the Slocum River. The Buzzards Bay Coalition has a plan to acquire the property and the CPA funds would be used by the town's conservation commission to purchase a conservation restriction on

the property which would then permanently protect the property from development. The proposal would be then to have an open space that would allow for a passive kind of public recreational use. Uh Buzzards Bay envisions having some public art on that parcel, but it's really key to the town in the sense that it provides for flood protection um animal uh fish habitat water protection uh from

runoff. Um there's a number of important things that this parcel um would um benefit the town if it were to be put into a conservation status. And so we're taking this to with our recommendation to town meeting to support that. Okay, great.

And then moving on to article five on the Crapo Field Lighting. Crapo Field is a well-used field for youth athletics, softball and baseball. The lighting infrastructure is anywhere from 30 to 50 years old. It's quite inefficient in terms of the kinds of lighting that was installed earlier. Hard to find parts for a repair. Dartmouth Youth Athletic Association is proposing to replace the

lighting and controls with LED lights, much more efficient, lower cost of operation focused lighting on the fields as well as the controls that will make it easier and more efficient to operate the lighting. And so um this this article would support the funds needed to um upgrade the lighting at the fields.

And moving on to article six, the Dartmouth Cultural Center. Located on Elm Street, was the old Southworth Library. Very unique old building, but requires a good deal of work both in terms to restore and repair basic kind of building components like the exterior masonry, windows, but this project will also provide handicap parking and access to the building, handicap bathroom, which are key elements both for public

access, but also for the cultural center to be eligible for other kinds of grants because they could meet the requirements of have fully accessible space for the public. Will also upgrade the HVAC system and the interior spaces so that it's much more conducive to exhibiting art and the kinds of programs that they sponsored there. Previously, the town approved a grant of $260,000 for this project. They have received a

30-year lease from the town and are ready to move forward with the whole project. And so this additional $850,000 along with a $160,000 grant from the state will give them the funds to do the work that needs to be done. Okay.

And then last but not least, uh the agriculture preservation fund.

The agricultural preservation fund is a large investment to initially capitalize with 1 and 1/2 million dollars an agricultural preservation fund. The town has had some history with agricultural preservation fund. In fact, in the late '90s, the agricultural preservation trust fund was established. Think they estimate probably up to 500 acres of agricultural land was preserved with

that fund. And looking to reconstitute such a fund, we had a work group that looked into what what kind of entity would be eligible for um community preservation act funding under the state statute chapter 40, I think it's section 8L, an agricultural commission can um have and administer what's called an agricultural preservation fund.

And that fund under state statute is eligible for CPA funding. And so this article um is to provide the initial capitalization for such fund. Agricultural Commission is hopeful that this will provide access for young farmers. It may be really helpful for uh older farming families who would like to see the legacy of their farming tradition continue, but also envision that they may not be able

to continue that themselves.

We're looking forward to being able to have the kinds of funds and predictability and responsiveness that probably could be effective in um preserving some important agricultural land that um otherwise would be uh lost in the town.

Well, thank you so much for coming in, Buddy. I really appreciate it.

Well, thank you. I appreciate um that you do something like this so people understand a little bit better what the articles are in front of uh town meeting this year. Thank you a lot.

Yeah. Next we have town administrator Cody Haddad and budget and finance director Gary Carreiro to review the remaining 21 regular town meeting articles and three special town meeting articles.

Thank you for the opportunity. Uh we're very excited this year to have a number of CPC articles. Uh you heard from Buddy Baker Smith earlier who uh really knows the ins and outs of CPC and has has been on the committee in Dartmouth for a long time. The only thing I have to mention is Article 4, the Deval Field Project recommendation. There's been a lot of conversation throughout the community

about what the long-term project will look like. I just want to remind town meeting that that the project is just for the purchase of a conservation restriction for the town of Dartmouth.

It does not go into what the future plans are beyond purchasing the conservation restriction. So, anything else is really beyond the scope of what town meeting's voting on. And so, I just request that at town meeting and as you prepare for town meeting, if you're a town meeting member, let's focus on what's exactly on the warrant, which is the purchase of a conservation restriction. Okay, great. Thanks, Cody.

We're going to move into Article number eight.

Yes, so Article 8, this is as always with our spring town meetings, we have a number of what we call housekeeping articles. They're articles you see every year. So, Article 8 is an appropriation for the sale of cemetery lot fund. It's in the amount of $2,000. That's one of those housekeeping articles. The money that we receive from the sale of cemetery lots, it re-appropriates that

for use. Okay. And then, Article number nine. Article number nine is the maximum spending limits for the cemetery, recreation, and library. What that does is it gives town meeting the authority to up those budgets so that they those those different departments can spend to those limits. We increase these mainly for recreation because of mainly like the bucket, the Wishing Higher sales. So, we

have to allow that department to essentially raise their revenue so that the limit so that they can go ahead and spend that.

And this doesn't cost the average taxpayer anything. No, nothing.

This is just the money that they're taking in allows them to spend it.

Correct.

Okay, good. Article number 10.

So, Article 10 is the 2027 capital plan.

We do this in both town meetings, both in the annual and the uh fall town meetings. So, on some of the items I'd just like to touch upon the uh police department, for instance.

Axon tasers in a continuation of their program. Uh also, they're looking for two administrative vehicles, which is in line with their uh replacement of their vehicles at at the police department.

So, on the schools, you'll see items such as uh re-flooring replacements, uh bathroom renovations, and uh a school bus replacement. Uh and some items uh as far as like technology and so on and so forth there. Uh also, another um larger um capital request was from DCTV, um mainly for our production truck and uh equipment uh replacement. Article 11.

Article 11, another housekeeping uh annual article. This sets the salaries and stipends of elected officials. Here in the town of Dartmouth, we only have one full-time elected official. That's our town clerk. So, that's the only salary you're going to see on there. The amount this year is $110,248.

The the consistent uh message for this position is we recently had a compensation and classification study done. It looked at all of our positions throughout town, uh general government, and where they should be uh with the market. And so, what we did is we're following the same methodology with this position as we are with all of our others. We're taking the current salary, which is 106685.

We're plugging it into the new scale um on that range, and so that's what that's what you get, 110248. And then going forward, this allows for a more simple methodology where we can plug the it into the same scale that every other position in town is utilizing. Okay, great. Article number 12.

So, the annual budget, yes. So, this year's budget is $113,389,515.

Uh last year's budget was $108,500,032, uh which represents about a 4.3% increase in overall. Um and uh I you know, this year uh mainly as we did in last year's budget, we collaborated with the schools. Um as uh you know, the town uh they did come in at a higher higher rate. We were able to to uh some of those uh um increases, so that working with them uh

uh to get roughly a 5% increase for the schools this year. We know that there's a lot of work still to be done going forward, but this covers mainly you know most of the operating budget for the general fund.

Also gives the essential services in town, which level funded level services requested which we asked for when we start the budget process.

And so again it's a 4.3% increase from last year's budget.

Schedule A is attached to your town meeting packet. That is the detailed budget for for the operations of the town. As Mr. Corriveau mentioned, you know we we were diligent in recognizing that there was a significant need from Dartmouth Public Schools over the last year. We've worked diligently with Dr.

Stephen Maguire, the Superintendent of Schools, and Mr. Jim Kyle, the Assistant Superintendent of Schools to to accommodate as much of their request that we can. We fell a little short of what they initially requested. However, we're able to accommodate a 5% increase over last year's school department budget, which is quite significant particularly as you look throughout the region. And I think you know

Massachusetts municipalities are facing financial burdens where Dartmouth is not unique to that. But what we're seeing is is us being able to accommodate a 5% increase in our public schools is far beyond what much of our peer communities are seeing. And so we're very happy that we're able to do that. It's a priority to continue to provide high quality education here in Dartmouth. But with

that, I want to mention Articles 19 and 20 are directly tied to the budget this year. So Article 19 is an appropriation for from a stabilization fund, the same with Article 20. And those are essentially being utilized to fund partially Dartmouth Public Schools this year. So those need to pass in order for the number that Dartmouth Public Schools in Schedule A on the warrant to go forward. Those two articles also

need to pass. So [clears throat] it's another funding source to help us accommodate the 5% increase this year.

But we just wanted to make that note that that the budget is tied directly to articles 19 and 20 this year. Okay.

Article 13. So article 13 is the funding for the sewer and septic betterment program that we have in town. This again is a standard article that we have in the spring town meeting. It allows for you know, us to pay the debt service on those tie-ins if you will. And this year's amount is 1 million 113 045. So this is again a standardized article that we put into every town meeting as we have

to pay off that debt going forward.

Article 14. The next several articles are funding of our enterprise funds. And so we previously had the general operating budget and that is for all of your non-enterprise funds, general government, schools. And so we have a number of enterprise funds here in Dartmouth, solid waste, we have water, sewer, DCTV, and waterways which is our harbormaster department. And so those are funded like a business essentially

and so the rates come in and they pay for the operations. So each one of those is funded through a separate article.

Article 14 is our solid waste department, essentially trash and recycling. And so this year that amount is 2 million 465,407 dollars to fund the solid waste department.

Okay. And then article 15. It's for the water department, another enterprise fund article. It's funded at 8 million 63,044 dollars which is to help the operations and that is again all raised raised through user fees and not part of the general fund budget. Quite significant increase, right? Last year was 6.9 million and this year is a little over 8 million.

And the reason for that is you know, we we really need to make sure that we're able to cover our expenses in our water department. There's no secret that our water department enterprise fund has been has facing challenges over the last year. As our residents know, we unfortunately had to come forward with a 13% mid-year rate increase. And so, the good news is that we are on a path towards a really solid operation

financially, and this is reflective of that. So, rates we anticipate going to more of a a typical range um in the higher single digits likely to going forward. Uh we're we're hopeful that we're not going to see those huge spikes in rates again. But, unfortunately, this is what it costs the town of Dartmouth to run our water department. Article 16.

So, Article 16 is to fund the uh sewer enterprise fund uh $7,520,573.

Again uh set by user rates uh through the town.

This funds their operations um and uh as Cody had mentioned in the last article, we're we closely monitor these now going forward to make sure that they're um uh solvent. And then, Article 17. Article 17 is to fund DCTV. Uh DCTV provides such an excellent service. We're grateful to be here today because of DCTV. And so, um this funds again through the primarily our cable revenues

uh as if you have cable in town through Comcast, uh percentage of those revenues uh come back to the town. What you'll notice uh this year is is one of the first years where it's really starting to hit us. Many, many people have um been cutting the cord, right? Is what they call it, getting rid of cable. And so, we do not get a fee on internet. We only get it on [snorts] the cable

portion. And And if you look at the Article 17, you will see a significant incre- decrease in the cable access fees from 622,000 approximately down to 590,000. And that's reflective of the cord cutters and us not bringing in that revenue. So, the overall budget for DCTV this year uh is actually decreasing. That is not because our expenses at DT- DCTV have gone down. That's because uh we are

seeing uh a decrease in the revenue coming in, and we've had to make some adjustments. So, this is something we want to make town meeting aware of. This year, we are able to absorb this the the uh decreases in the operation. But, going forward, the town's really going to need to look at really maybe having to fund a portion of DCTV because they provide such an excellent service to the

community. We want to make sure that DCTV can continue to operate at a high level and the cable revenues just aren't aren't paying for it anymore. Article 18.

So article 18 is the uh to fund the waterways management enterprise fund, also the harbor maintains that area of town at $445,639.

And again, this is through rate users that that either going down to the harbor using facilities down there and subsidizes the the fund. Article 19.

Yes, so article 19 as I mentioned is directly tied to the budget this year.

It's an appropriation in the amount of $100,000 from our collective bargaining stabilization fund. Town meeting members may recall several years ago we created the collective bargaining stabilization fund and as with some really strong financial policies, we've continued to fund that.

Essentially, that is money we put aside for the cost of bargaining our contracts. So most of our employees are in unions, collective bargaining agreements they're subject to. And so when we need to fund a new collective bargaining agreement beyond the typical operating budget, we will go to this account to help us ease our way into the budget. And so $100,000 this year is to directly fund part of the school

We anticipate coming back in the fall for some appropriation from this this fund for the town general government side of collective bargaining.

Article 20. Article 20 is similar to article 19 in that it's an appropriation from our stabilization fund to fund part of the Dartmouth public schools budget this year in the in the amount of $178,309.

This is from the full day kindergarten stabilization fund created a number of years ago and this is going to go to the school towards their cost of full day kindergarten. There is still a remaining amount of approximately $170,000 after this appropriation.

Article 21.

Yeah, Article 21 is essentially updates to our personnel bylaw for all of the positions that are non-union, non-personnel contract. And so, we have a number of full-time positions, we have a number of seasonal positions. The list is there. This is primarily as a result of the compensation classification study that the town did. We're updating all of the pay pay ranges with with their recommendations.

Okay.

Article 22.

Article 22, this is a general bylaw amendment, Chapter 134, Section 15. This is our dog hearing officer. Statutorily, we are required to have a hearing officer in the case of of a a nuisance or dangerous dog. Right now, the bylaw restricts that to be only a member of the Dartmouth Police Department.

What we've seen is there can be instances where we need to bring in someone from outside the Dartmouth Police Department, whether it's another employee of the town, a volunteer, or a professional hearing officer. It's good to have that flexibility. So, this just allows that the select board in their discretion would be able to appoint someone beyond a Dartmouth Police Officer to

serve as a hearing officer for the town.

Okay.

Article 23. Article 23, this is another general bylaw amendment, Chapter 315, Section 6, snow to be removed from sidewalks. This has not been updated since 1947. So, we thought it was time to update this this bylaw. The bylaw previously required that snow be removed within 4 hours at the after the end of a storm, and it really just, you know, we viewed it as for working people, it may

not always be feasible. 4 hours isn't always enough. And so, what we did is a few things. First, we extended that to 24 hours. So, if you have a sidewalk in front of your house, you now you 24 hours after the storm stops to get that sidewalk cleared. We also go into detail that if there's a significant snow event in the town declares a snow emergency like we did with the blizzard that

occurred earlier this year, you have 24 hours after the snow emergency has ended to get your sidewalk cleared. We're reasonable. We don't expect people to to be out there in the middle of a blizzard getting that cleared. Public safety is is utmost important to the town of Dartmouth and so we really need to make sure that areas near a school and areas in the commercial zone where we have people walking more often

are have cleared sidewalks. And so what this bylaw does is it allows us to fine at a higher rate if you do live within a mile of a school or in the commercial zone that the fine increases to $300 per offense versus the $25 that it was previously. Article 24. Article 24 is actually the establishment of a new general bylaw. This came at the recommendation of our police chief and essentially this is a ban on crypto

ATMs. So crypto currency has taken become more popular in the last several years and what we've seen is an uptick in crime at these crypto ATMs typically through fraud and theft.

Most people if they want to purchase crypto currency, they'll go through some sort of brokerage firm do it online.

Most people are not going to these crypto ATMs to buy crypto currency and so that they've attracted some fraudulent and malicious activities to communities. And so we are looking to ban them. We do have a number of them currently in the town of Dartmouth. This bylaw does allow for 60 days after it's passed to remove them. So it we recognize there's some time to take effect. But we're really just trying to

look out for our general public. We've seen a lot of the elderly population in some cases has been taken advantage of in using these crypto ATMs and so it's another tool for us to keep our community safe. Article 25. Article 25 is service of the uh laws uh chapter 59 section 5 uh brought forth by the Board of Assessors. So, what this allows is for um any real estate transactions that

are in a trust, uh it gives the uh veterans a little bit more flexibility.

Uh and that is all through the Assessor's office. So, if any there are any questions on this article, uh we we recommend that uh the um the individual, if they're a veteran, contact the Assessor's office or the Veterans Agent in town, they can walk them through that. Okay. Great. So, Jess, articles 26, 27, and 28 are the last three articles on the annual town meeting warrant. They are all um they are are

the similar in the sense that they're citizens' petitions, and so um citizens are allowed to submit petitions if they get the right number of signatures on a um on a town meeting article. And so, we have three of them this year. Um we we have to put them on the warrant if they are got the number of signatures required, which all of these did, certified by the town clerk. But, in our

review, um they're not in compliance for a number of reasons. So, they're not in compliance with either Massachusetts General Law, they're not they could be conflicting with bylaws. Um there's various areas where we review. And so, um these three will have to be acted on at town meeting. However, we have found them to not be in compliance. And so, what that essentially means is either if they pass,

they may not actually do anything, or if they pass, they may not get past the Attorney General because um there may be some legal uh compliance issues. And so, the Select Board and the Finance Committee all voted unanimously to not recommend these articles. Not because they're against what the articles are bringing forward in their merit, but rather they're not in compliance. That that's the big uh

concern. So, they will be brought up at town meeting. However, just want the the community to be aware of that. Okay. And now we're going to move to the special town meeting articles. Within our annual town meeting this year, we have a special town meeting. Uh special town meeting will, you know, it's not an an additional meeting. Basically, we will take a pause on the annual town meeting

and we'll go right into the special town meeting. Three articles. Uh special town meetings can be called for a number of reasons. Primarily, we will call a special town meeting to deal with matters within the current fiscal year.

So, that's exactly what we have this year.

Um and it's really a cleanup. We we we've had a number of articles in the past that have are similar to these.

It's been a few years since uh town meeting members have seen this, but it's not necessarily something completely new to Dartmouth. And so, all three of these articles are additional appropriations to uh enterprise funds. So, I talked about enterprise funds earlier.

Um so, article one is an additional appropriation to our current year enterpri- water department enterprise fund. $450,000.

Um it's really uh we have the revenue to cover it, so we're not running a deficit as we have in the past. We just didn't budget enough on paper. And so, we've brought in more money than we expected, um but our costs have been higher than expected. So, with that, we need to make an additional appropriation.

Massachusetts law only allows us to spend the dollar amount that town meeting has previously approved, even if the money comes in. And so, the money's coming in, we just don't have the ability to spend it, and we need to, or we're going to run a deficit again. And so, that's the case with all three of these. Uh article two is for the sewer enterprise fund. That's in the amount of $200,000.

Uh and article three is in the amount of $100,000 for the solid waste enterprise fund budget.

Okay.

Well, thank you both for coming and explaining what's going to be on the warrant this year. And I think this is really insightful for everyone to know and just get more information. The annual town meeting process is um really a labor of love. A lot of work goes into this from the budget, which Gary and his team are instrumental uh in getting that done. The finance committee, you know,

meets diligently reviewing these requests um from communications to every single department in town. We're were at DCTV to get the information out. And so, you know, I ask that as a right if you're a resident, town meeting member, you know, take the opportunity to be grateful for the great staff that we have here in Dartmouth. Really highly dedicated individuals that put on the hard work to make sure that this is

successful and that you as community members have the information that you need. With that, I'm going to make a little plug. We are doing a pre-town meeting meeting this year on May 27th.

Dartmouth High School Auditorium at 6:00 p.m. An opportunity for residents, community members, town meeting members to come in, ask questions, get more information about the warrant. If you watch this and you and you say, "Well, geez, this question is is something I have." You can come to that meeting and and get the facts before you even get to town meeting. The idea is there'll still be questions at town

meeting, which is great. We want dialogue, but we want you to be able to make the most informed decision that you can at town meeting. So, we're trying to give you every opportunity to do that with this, with the pre-town meeting, and at at town meeting. So, I appreciate you both and we look forward to see everyone at town meeting. And as a reminder, town meeting is on Tuesday, June 2nd at 9:00

a.m. And it'll be at the Dartmouth High School Auditorium. And we'd like you to get there early, so make sure you come at 8:00, and that's when check-in will begin.